Library Of Congress Funds Castro Propaganda Film

29 Jun 2011

The Library of Congress (which is funded by you and me) is funding the preservation of a 1968 documentary film on Fidel Castro by Leftist Saul Landau. The Library of Congress’ National Film Preservation Foundation provided the funds for the glowing documentary. As the leftist Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), where Landau is a fellow, provides a hint at the tone of the film when announcing the grant:

Taxpayer money goes to preserve leftist hagiography of Fidel Castro

“It’s a temporary moment for celebration in the film, as Landau’s camera follows Castro in a rocky jeep traveling through the Sierra Maestra and Sierra Cristal mountains, on a helicopter observing the landscape, inside a tent eating dinner and at the podium as he discusses the challenges of instituting the revolution’s gains, of creating a proud and productive populace, of overcoming the problems of underdevelopment, all while facing perpetual, hostile threats from a behemoth miles away.

These intimate moments on camera–down to the close up of Castro’s terribly dirty fingernails– merit preservation for life because of the incisive insights that they shed not only on Castro’s style of leadershipand Cuba’s early history post Batista, but on any profound social, political, economic and cultural changes that a country faces.”